Kudumbashree planning mode taken to tribal hamlets
Kudumbashree Mission’s Micro-Level Planning (MLP) programme, a planning process at the grassroots level, will be extended to Scheduled Tribes (ST) colonies across the state of Kerala.
What is Kudumbashree?
- It is an innovative model for poverty eradication through women empowerment.
- It was conceived as a joint programme of the Government of Kerala and NABARD implemented through Community Development Societies (CDSs) of Poor Women, serving as the community wing of Local Governments.
- Three critical components of the program are micro credit, entrepreneurship and empowerment.
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The mission aims at the empowerment of women, through forming self-help groups and encouraging their entrepreneurial or other wide range of activities.
(Kudumbashree means prosperity of the family in Malayalam)
- Kudumbashree differs from conventional programmes in that it perceives poverty not just as the deprivation of money, but also as the deprivation of basic rights. The poor need to find a collective voice to help claim these rights.
- The grassroots of Kudumbashree are Neighbourhood Groups (NHG in short) that send representatives to the ward level Area Development Societies (ADS). The ADS sends its representatives to the Community Development Society (CDS), which completes the unique three-tier structure of Kudumbashree.
- It is this network that brings women to the Grama Sabhas and helps them bring the needs of the poor to the attention of the local governments. The Community Development Societies are also very active in Government programmes and play significant roles in development activities ranging from socio-economic surveys and enterprise development to community management and social audit.
Sources: The Hindu, Wiki, kudumbashree.org.
High Court expands Governors power to suspend PSC chairman
In an interpretation made by the High court of Karnataka on Governors’ powers on suspending a PSC chairman or members, the court said that Governors will get the power to suspend the chairman or members of a the State Public Service Commission (PSC) soon after making recommendations to the President for their removal, by making reference to the Supreme Court.
Justice B.V. Nagarathna delivered the verdict while dismissing the petition of Mangala Shridhar, suspended member of the Karnataka Public Service Commission. She had contended that the Governor would get the power to suspend a chairman or members of the PSC only after the President makes a reference to the Supreme Court for their removal from the post as per Article 317 (2) of the Constitution.
Article 317 (2) states that the Governor can suspend a chairman or any member of the PSC “in respect of whom a reference ‘has been made’ to the Supreme Court under clause (1) until the President has passed orders on receipt of the report of the Supreme Court on such reference”.
Observations made by the Court:
The court said “the expression ‘has been made’ cannot be interpreted to mean a past event but has a connotation of a continuous circumstance or contemporaneity, the starting point of which is when the Governor makes a request to the President to make a reference to the Supreme Court for the removal of a chairman or a member of the PSC.”
In circumstances such as arrest of a chairman or member of a PSC or malpractices committed during the process of selection of public servants, the court said, may call for an immediate suspension, and any lapse of time in suspending the chairman or members of the PSC in such a situation and by allowing them to continue in the post, could be detrimental to the PSC.
Sources: The Hindu.
India’s Mars Orbiter has made it to the top
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has put itself into orbit around the Mars.
A history has been created by ISRO. For the first time a space agency has put a spacecraft around Mars on its first attempt (NASA took two attempts to get so far; the Soviet Union, three).
This ISRO has proven its ability to plan and execute long term missions.
About Mars Orbiter Mission:
The MOM, India’s first interplanetary mission, was launched by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The Mission is primarily technological mission considering the critical mission operations and stringent requirements on propulsion and other bus systems of spacecraft.
Objectives of the mission:
One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
The major objectives of the mission:
Technological Objectives:
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Design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to survive and perform Earth bound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion / capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars.
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Deep space communication, navigation, mission planning and management.
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Incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations.
Scientific Objectives:
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Exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.
Payloads:
About PSLV:
It is the first operational launch vehicle of ISRO. PSLV is capable of launching 1600 kg satellites in 620 km sun-synchronous polar orbit and 1050 kg satellite in geo-synchronous transfer orbit.
PSLV has four stages using solid and liquid propulsion systems alternately. The first stage is one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the world and carries 139 tonnes of propellant.
There had been 26 continuously successful flights of PSLV.
Sources: The Hindu, Wiki, www.isro.org.
Unprecedented demand for food aid, says U.N.
World Food Programme (WFP), the U.N. aid agency finds itself simultaneously responding to half a dozen major crises in addition to helping the largest number of refugees in the world since the Second World War.
There are currently four top-level humanitarian crises (Iraq, Syria, the Central African Republic and South Sudan) as well as hundreds of thousands of people caught up in the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and more than 50 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people scattered around the world.
WFP has been forced to cut some rations and distributions Because of funding shortages and increasing demands from the four crisis countries, refugees, and countries hit hardest by Ebola.
About WFP:
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food assistance branch of the United Nations and the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security. The WFP strives to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, with the ultimate goal in mind of eliminating the need for food aid itself.
It is a member of the United Nations Development Group and part of its Executive Committee.
Born in 1961, WFP pursues a vision of the world in which every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life.
The WFP is governed by an Executive Board which consists of representatives from 36 member states.
The objectives that the WFP hopes to achieve are to
- “Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies”
- “Support food security and nutrition and (re)build livelihoods in fragile settings and following emergencies”
- “Reduce risk and enable people, communities and countries to meet their own food and nutrition needs”
- “Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger”
WFP food aid is also directed to fight micronutrient deficiencies, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat disease, including HIV and AIDS. Food-for-work programmes help promote environmental and economic stability and agricultural production.
The WFP operations are funded by voluntary donations from world governments, corporations and private donors.
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p style=”text-align: right”>Sources: The Hindu, Wiki, www.wfp.org.
